RIM's chief legal officer quits ahead of job cuts

Just days before predicted reshuffle

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Another departure from RIM

Karim Bawa, BlackBerry maker RIM's chief legal officer, has resigned.

This comes just days before thousands of job cuts are expected at the Canadian company.

Ms Bawa had been at the company 12 years. The company said it has been discussing her retirement for a while, but her departure still comes at a sensitive time for the company. Last week Patrick Spence, head of global sales, also stepped down.

Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail reported over the weekend that the Waterloo-based company would cut at least 2,000 jobs this Friday, June 1. But a source told Reuters the actual figure will be closer to 6,000.

Wide-ranging cuts

The cuts are expected to "sweep across departments, ranging from senior positions in RIM's legal division to human resources, finance, sales, and marketing," according to the paper.

The practice of firing junior members of staff is apparently so regular at RIM that it's become known as 'Goodbye Thursdays'.

Co-chief executives Mike Lazardis and Jim Balsillie resigned in January. Thorsten Heins took over, but things don't seem to be getting much better for the company.

It failed to launch any new handsets at BlackBerry World this month in Florida, instead pinning all its hopes on BlackBerry 10, its forthcoming operating system. It's thought this will usher in a new range of touchscreen BlackBerry handsets, and possibly revive the flagging company, but we'll have to wait and see.

Last year, the BBM outage rendered BlackBerry handsets useless all over the world.